Half way into the four month long No Surrender arc in Avengers and one of our
first shocks was the arrival of a long forgotten teammate Voyager (aka Valerie
Vector), who was one of the founding members of the team. Her origin was
revealed in Avengers #681, which was drawn by Kim Jacinto and Mike Perkins. The
issue told the origin of Voyager’s powers and how they work. It also introduced
a classic Avenger into the main story and set the stage for the return of the
Bruce Banner Hulk which happens this week. The entire story is a contest between
the Grandmaster and the Challenger, another of the Elders of the Universe.
According to Al Ewing the idea behind the Challenger was to show a battle
between the Grandmaster and a former adversary who was looking for revenge. Mark
Waid was the one that decided that Voyager’s powers were related to Quantum
Entanglement, the phenomenon that groups of particles exists whose states cannot
be described independent of one another. This allows her to go wherever she
wants to be because she is connected to everything. #680 marked the return of
the Original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, who gives the team a huge morale boost. And
for all you Banner Hulk fans once he does return the writers promise one of the
most brutal rampages ever seen in comics and the death of at least one Avenger.
Waid also hints that Jarvis’ role in this story is a little more important than
it might at first look.